Water Standards Don’t Protect Half of Population, Nader Says

Government standards for drinking water do not protect the health of half the population, consumer advocate Ralph Nader charged Saturday.

Nader said that the Environmental Protection Agency has assumed in its calculations that a person consumes, at most, two liters of water per day, or about two quarts, even though “half the U.S. adult population drinks more than two liters of water per capita per day, and the EPA knows this.”

Some men drink as much as six quarts of water daily, Nader said.

The EPA disputed Nader’s statements. It said the agency’s interpretation of water-consumption data also used by Nader determined that between 75% and 85% of Americans drink two liters of water or less per day.

EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said a report of the National Academy of Science concluded that people who drink more than two liters daily are protected by the margin of safety that must be built into the standards.

Nader said in his statment that there may be unacceptable levels of fluoride, benzene, lead and cadmium in drinking water.

Joseph Cotruvo, director of criteria and standards in the EPA’s drinking water division, said a federal court recently considered the fluoride standard and found that it protected “even sensitive portions of the population,” a category that includes people who drink lots of water.

The lead and cadmium standards are being revised, he said, and he added that it is likely that the levels of those metals allowed in drinking water will be reduced significantly. He said the benzene standard was revised one month ago.